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Addiction is a complex and chronic disease that affects the brain and behavior, often leading to destructive outcomes. While many see addiction as simply the inability to stop using substances, the reality is far more intricate. The cycle of addiction involves brain chemistry, tolerance, withdrawal, and the body’s changing response to substances over time. Understanding these factors can help shed light on why breaking free from the cycle of addiction is so difficult and what happens biologically when someone becomes addicted. Ultimately, with the help of a treatment program and qualified healthcare providers, you can get to the next stage beyond the addiction cycle and break free of your drug dependence for good. It supports your recovery after you leave more intensive treatment, like residential rehab.
- It is at this point of the addiction cycle that the brain has made a physiological change, usually involving a decrease in brain chemical production or a loss of brain chemical receptors.
- Physical dependence shows when you feel sick without taking the substance.
- Every person’s experiences are a bit different, but nearly all of them will have some level of the following cycle.
- In this phase, the person struggling with addiction and dependence once again seeks out the substance of choice to reclaim what they feel is a normal emotional and physical state.
Common Phases of the Addiction Cycle
Later stages, like stages 3 and 4, may require more involved treatment. Each person’s journey through the stages of addiction may vary in severity or length, but many go through the same distinct stages in their descent into drug or alcohol addiction. Identifying the stages of addiction can help you break the cycle of drug use and find the best treatment for your unique situation. The treatment recommended for drug use and any coexisting medical or mental health conditions can vary.
- You can become dependent on the substance to function without discomfort or unhappiness3, especially as your brain learns to make less dopamine and simply wait for more to come from the substance.
- Surges of dopamine in the brain’s reward circuit cause repetition of behavior.
- It’s not a generic EHR retrofitted for rehab, but rather an all-in-one platform designed from the ground up to meet the needs of addiction treatment and mental health providers.
- However, even though each phase may differ in its duration, they generally progress in a repetitive pattern until some form of treatment takes place to intervene and alleviate the addiction.
Predatory and Unethical Substance Use Treatment Fraud, Part 1
As addiction progresses, individuals may find themselves trapped in a cycle of compulsive drug-seeking and use. Mental health conditions, stress, and grief can all trigger the need for soothing and distraction. Drugs and alcohol can serve as a tool for self-medication, providing temporary relief from symptoms of depression, anxiety, trauma, and others. It’s often triggered by something, like the environment you live in, stressors, and mental health conditions. Knowing how addiction looks is a key step to finding treatment—and recovery. Individualized detox and residential care for addiction and co-occurring conditions using experiential healing activities like dolphin therapy on beautiful Kona.
During this stage, individuals work hard to stick to their goals. It’s challenging, but it’s also empowering as they start to see progress. This stage is about becoming aware, but the person may not be ready to act yet. During this stage, family and friends often notice the problem before the person does. This reflex can last a long time, even years after one’s last use of that substance.
But remember, this is the point where treatment can have the most profound impact. When a person recognizes the need for change, and they are ready to take on the challenges it brings, treatment becomes a viable option. They recognize that if they do not take actions to get help, they could die. At this stage, a person recognizes that continued use of the drug is not safe and carries risks and poor outcomes. Yet, they do not feel they can stop using it and continue to use knowing these risks exist. In this second stage, a person has used Sobriety the drug and is now taking the drug in various ways.
Medical Disclaimer
Hiding and spending more time alone can be a sign too, as this would keep other loved ones from noticing some of the more obvious signs. A countryside campus on the Brazos River providing modern-style homes and a focus on full continuum care with detox, residential, and long-term options. An evidence-based rehab offering holistic and experiential therapies, tailoring treatment to each client on a comfortable campus near Austin. Relapses occur more often than you might think,6 and they’re a common part of the addiction cycle. They typically have a trigger related to your environment and/or emotional state. You can become dependent on the substance to function without discomfort or unhappiness3, especially as your brain learns to make less dopamine and simply wait for more to come from the substance.
Addiction Treatment Therapy Programs
Helps get lives back on track from substance use and behavioral addiction. Offers evidence-based, step-down care from residential to outpatient to aftercare. In this final stage of addiction, the individual attempts to stop using the substance but experience intense withdrawals. These withdrawals may be so extreme you’re willing to do anything to obtain the substance. At the third stage of the addiction cycle, regular use causes tolerance and physical or psychological dependence on the abused substance. Addicts often experience significant changes in their lifestyle and personality to cater to drug or alcohol abuse.
Illegal Drug Addiction
This creates a constant state of imbalance, where the brain’s natural systems can no longer function properly without the drug. As a result, people struggling with addiction cycles often find it difficult to make rational decisions or resist cravings. This means that over time, users need to consume higher amounts of the drug to feel its effects, further reinforcing the cycle of addiction. The more the brain adapts, the more drugs are needed, leading to even more profound changes in brain chemistry. After using a drug for some time, a person can find themselves trying to quit. Clinically, you may hear addiction referred to as a “substance use disorder.” A person can remain in this stage of the cycle of addiction indefinitely and it’s not actually the final stage of addiction.
As the company itself describes, it provides “all of the software and billing services a treatment center needs” (All-in-one EHR, CRM, RCM Software for IOP, PHP, Residential, Inpatient Centers). For a facility director or program administrator, that means fewer contracts to manage and a cohesive user experience for their team. We may see EHR platforms integrating these tools so that clinicians can prescribe an app to a client and monitor their engagement and progress through the software.
Many treatment programs have to bill multiple payers or split a claim between an insurance portion and a self-pay portion (for example, when housing fees aren’t covered by insurance). BehaveHealth’s integrated RCM ensures these scenarios are handled smoothly. In short, it is built to handle the tricky billing workflows specific to behavioral healthcare, helping facilities capture revenue that might otherwise slip through cracks in a less specialized system.
The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers. Behavioral health software will need to handle these new streams of data and incorporate them into the clinical record in meaningful ways.
Cloud-based software, in particular, has seen a surge in adoption. It should not be used in place of the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider. Decision-makers who embrace these tools position their centers to thrive amid changing regulations, growing demand, and advancing standards of care. When you’re ready to make that leap, remember that solutions like BehaveHealth are here to partner with you in that journey. Your patients deserve the best care, and your staff deserve the best tools – with the right software in place, you can confidently deliver both. BehaveHealth stands out as a solution that checks all these boxes.
After being through the withdrawal symptoms, or maybe because they were too difficult to handle, the individual relapses, finding their drug or substance and starting the cycle of use, abuse, addiction again. There are many reasons people relapse, many of which are tied into those original reasons they chose to use in the first place. We foresee behavioral health software including more analytics dashboards and perhaps even AI-driven recommendations. Program directors might get alerts highlighting that, for example, completion rates in their IOP track have improved 10% after implementing a new group therapy module, suggesting a positive impact. Or risk stratification tools might categorize incoming patients by complexity, helping administrators allocate caseloads in a way that balances staff effort. The final stage of the addiction cycle is relapse, often occurring as the withdrawal symptoms become too overwhelming for the individual.